The city’s plan to ship nearly a third of its household waste to Virginia is sparking a backlash – with the Southern governor now vowing his state won’t become “a dumping ground for East Coast garbage.”

“The governor is troubled by the latest revelations that more garbage will be coming from New York,” said Mark Miner, spokesman for Gov. Jim Gilmore.

In fact, Gilmore will be outlining a get-tough policy on garbage imports during his State of the Commonwealth Address today.

New York City intends to ship 3,900 tons of garbage by barge from Brooklyn to landfills in Virginia every day – increasing that state’s imports by more than 30 percent and sparking an uproar among residents.

“Gov. Gilmore will not tolerate Virginia becoming a dumping ground for out-of-state garbage,” said Miner. “New Yorkers are welcome to visit, but not their garbage.”

A poll last week by the Center For Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University found that 87 percent of Virginians surveyed want to put a cap on the amount of trash coming across their borders.

On the heels of last week’s poll, Gilmore announced he’ll back limits on garbage imports and that he wants to ban the use of barges to move trash along the state’s waterways – hitting directly at New York.

And with the Virginia Legislature up for election this year, out-of-state trash has become one of the top issues in the upcoming campaign. “It could certainly throw a monkey wrench into the city’s plans” to close the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, said Jim Sharp of Campaign Virginia, an environmental group leading the charge against city trash.

“It’s going to be one of the hottest issues dealt with in the Legislature this year,” said Sharp.

Virginians are rankled by their status as the second-leading importer of garbage in the nation, just behind Pennsylvania. But news that New York’s trash would be heading their way in ever-greater amounts sent people over the edge, Sharp said.

“There’s a problem as far as perception with New York’s trash coming here,” he said.

The city must close the massive Fresh Kills landfill by the end of 2001 – a date mandated by state law. To make that happen, the city has to find places to ship 13,000 tons of daily residential waste.

Mayor Giuliani has insisted economics will win out, predicting that more than enough states will end up vying to get the city’s lucrative garbage business.

The city is negotiating with three massive solid-waste companies to ship and dump its trash.

Dave Tooley, a spokesman for Houston-based Waste Management, said the company, with hundreds of disposal sites around the nation, would be able to find room for New York’s trash.